.NET: How to convert Exception to string?

When an exception is thrown (while debugging in the IDE), i have the opportunity to view details of the exception:

But in code if i call exception.ToString() i do not get to see those useful details:

System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException (0x80131904): Could not find stored procedure 'FetchActiveUsers'.
  [...snip stack trace...]

But Visual Studio has some magic where it can copy the exception to the clipboard:

Which gives the useful details:

System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException was unhandled by user code
  Message=Could not find stored procedure 'FetchActiveUsers'.
  Source=.Net SqlClient Data Provider
  ErrorCode=-2146232060
  Class=16
  LineNumber=1
  Number=2812
  Procedure=""
  Server=vader
  State=62
  StackTrace:
       [...snip stack trace...]
  InnerException:

Well i want that!

What would be the contents of:

String ExceptionToString(Exception ex)
{ 
    //todo: Write useful routine
    return ex.ToString();
}

that can accomplish the same magic. Is there a .NET function built in somewhere? Does Exception have a secret method somewhere to convert it to a string?

ErrorCode is specific to ExternalException, not Exception and LineNumber and Number are specific to SqlException, not Exception. Therefore, the only way to get these properties from a general extension method on Exception is to use reflection to iterate over all of the public properties.

So you'll have to say something like:

public static string GetExceptionDetails(this Exception exception) {
    var properties = exception.GetType()
                            .GetProperties();
    var fields = properties
                     .Select(property => new { 
                         Name = property.Name,
                         Value = property.GetValue(exception, null)
                     })
                     .Select(x => String.Format(
                         "{0} = {1}",
                         x.Name,
                         x.Value != null ? x.Value.ToString() : String.Empty
                     ));
    return String.Join("\n", fields);
}

(Not tested for compliation issues.)

.NET 2.0 compatible answer:

public static string GetExceptionDetails(this Exception exception) 
{
    PropertyInfo[] properties = exception.GetType()
                            .GetProperties();
    List<string> fields = new List<string>();
    foreach(PropertyInfo property in properties) {
        object value = property.GetValue(exception, null);
        fields.Add(String.Format(
                         "{0} = {1}",
                         property.Name,
                         value != null ? value.ToString() : String.Empty
        ));    
    }         
    return String.Join("\n", fields.ToArray());
}

I first tried Jason's answer (at the top), which worked pretty well, but I also wanted:

• To loop iteratively through inner exceptions and indent them.
• Ignore null properties and increases readability of the output.
• It includes the metadata in the Data property. (if any) but excludes the Data property itself. (its useless).

I now use this:

    public static void WriteExceptionDetails(Exception exception, StringBuilder builderToFill, int level)
    {
        var indent = new string(' ', level);

        if (level > 0)
        {
            builderToFill.AppendLine(indent + "=== INNER EXCEPTION ===");                
        }

        Action<string> append = (prop) =>
            {
                var propInfo = exception.GetType().GetProperty(prop);
                var val = propInfo.GetValue(exception);

                if (val != null)
                {
                    builderToFill.AppendFormat("{0}{1}: {2}{3}", indent, prop, val.ToString(), Environment.NewLine);
                }
            };

        append("Message");
        append("HResult");
        append("HelpLink");
        append("Source");
        append("StackTrace");
        append("TargetSite");

        foreach (DictionaryEntry de in exception.Data)
        {
            builderToFill.AppendFormat("{0} {1} = {2}{3}", indent, de.Key, de.Value, Environment.NewLine);
        }

        if (exception.InnerException != null)
        {
            WriteExceptionDetails(exception.InnerException, builderToFill, ++level);
        }
    }

Call like this:

        var builder = new StringBuilder();
        WriteExceptionDetails(exception, builder, 0);
        return builder.ToString();

This comprehensive answer handles writing out:

1. The Data collection property found on all exceptions (The accepted answer does not do this).
2. Any other custom properties added to the exception.
3. Recursively writes out the InnerException (The accepted answer does not do this).
4. Writes out the collection of exceptions contained within the AggregateException.

It also writes out the properties of the exceptions in a nicer order. It's using C# 6.0 but should be very easy for you to convert to older versions if necessary.

public static class ExceptionExtensions
{
    public static string ToDetailedString(this Exception exception)
    {
        if (exception == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(exception));
        }

        return ToDetailedString(exception, ExceptionOptions.Default);
    }

    public static string ToDetailedString(this Exception exception, ExceptionOptions options)
    {
        var stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();

        AppendValue(stringBuilder, "Type", exception.GetType().FullName, options);
        
        foreach (PropertyInfo property in exception
            .GetType()
            .GetProperties()
            .OrderByDescending(x => string.Equals(x.Name, nameof(exception.Message), StringComparison.Ordinal))
            .ThenByDescending(x => string.Equals(x.Name, nameof(exception.Source), StringComparison.Ordinal))
            .ThenBy(x => string.Equals(x.Name, nameof(exception.InnerException), StringComparison.Ordinal))
            .ThenBy(x => string.Equals(x.Name, nameof(AggregateException.InnerExceptions), StringComparison.Ordinal)))
        {
            var value = property.GetValue(exception, null);
            if (value == null && options.OmitNullProperties)
            {
                if (options.OmitNullProperties)
                {
                    continue;
                }
                else
                {
                    value = string.Empty;
                }
            }
            
            AppendValue(stringBuilder, property.Name, value, options);
        }

        return stringBuilder.ToString().TrimEnd('\r', '\n');
    }

    private static void AppendCollection(
        StringBuilder stringBuilder,
        string propertyName,
        IEnumerable collection,
        ExceptionOptions options)
        {
            stringBuilder.AppendLine($"{options.Indent}{propertyName} =");

            var innerOptions = new ExceptionOptions(options, options.CurrentIndentLevel + 1);

            var i = 0;
            foreach (var item in collection)
            {
                var innerPropertyName = $"[{i}]";

                if (item is Exception)
                {
                    var innerException = (Exception)item;
                    AppendException(
                        stringBuilder,
                        innerPropertyName,
                        innerException,
                        innerOptions);
                }
                else
                {
                    AppendValue(
                        stringBuilder,
                        innerPropertyName,
                        item,
                        innerOptions);
                }

                ++i;
            }
        }

    private static void AppendException(
        StringBuilder stringBuilder,
        string propertyName,
        Exception exception,
        ExceptionOptions options)
    {
        var innerExceptionString = ToDetailedString(
            exception, 
            new ExceptionOptions(options, options.CurrentIndentLevel + 1));

        stringBuilder.AppendLine($"{options.Indent}{propertyName} =");
        stringBuilder.AppendLine(innerExceptionString);
    }

    private static string IndentString(string value, ExceptionOptions options)
    {
        return value.Replace(Environment.NewLine, Environment.NewLine + options.Indent);
    }

    private static void AppendValue(
        StringBuilder stringBuilder,
        string propertyName,
        object value,
        ExceptionOptions options)
    {
        if (value is DictionaryEntry)
        {
            DictionaryEntry dictionaryEntry = (DictionaryEntry)value;
            stringBuilder.AppendLine($"{options.Indent}{propertyName} = {dictionaryEntry.Key} : {dictionaryEntry.Value}");
        }
        else if (value is Exception)
        {
            var innerException = (Exception)value;
            AppendException(
                stringBuilder,
                propertyName,
                innerException,
                options);
        }
        else if (value is IEnumerable && !(value is string))
        {
            var collection = (IEnumerable)value;
            if (collection.GetEnumerator().MoveNext())
            {
                AppendCollection(
                    stringBuilder,
                    propertyName,
                    collection,
                    options);
            }
        }
        else
        {
            stringBuilder.AppendLine($"{options.Indent}{propertyName} = {value}");
        }
    }
}

public struct ExceptionOptions
{
    public static readonly ExceptionOptions Default = new ExceptionOptions()
    {
        CurrentIndentLevel = 0,
        IndentSpaces = 4,
        OmitNullProperties = true
    };

    internal ExceptionOptions(ExceptionOptions options, int currentIndent)
    {
        this.CurrentIndentLevel = currentIndent;
        this.IndentSpaces = options.IndentSpaces;
        this.OmitNullProperties = options.OmitNullProperties;
    }

    internal string Indent { get { return new string(' ', this.IndentSpaces * this.CurrentIndentLevel); } }

    internal int CurrentIndentLevel { get; set; }

    public int IndentSpaces { get; set; }

    public bool OmitNullProperties { get; set; }
}

Top Tip - Logging Exceptions

Most people will be using this code for logging. Consider using Serilog with my Serilog.Exceptions NuGet package which also logs all properties of an exception but does it faster and without reflection in the majority of cases. Serilog is a very advanced logging framework which is all the rage at the time of writing.

Top Tip - Human Readable Stack Traces

You can use the Ben.Demystifier NuGet package to get human readable stack traces for your exceptions or the serilog-enrichers-demystify NuGet package if you are using Serilog. If you are using .NET Core 2.1, then this feature comes built in.

For people who don't want to mess with overriding, this simple non-intrusive method might be enough:

    public static string GetExceptionDetails(Exception exception)
    {
        return "Exception: " + exception.GetType()
            + "\r\nInnerException: " + exception.InnerException
            + "\r\nMessage: " + exception.Message
            + "\r\nStackTrace: " + exception.StackTrace;
    }

It does not show the SQLException-specific details you want, though...

There is no secret method. You could probably just override the ToString() method and build the string you want.

Things like ErrorCode and Message are just properties of the exception that you can add to the desired string output.

---

Update: After re-reading your question and thinking more about this, Jason's answer is more likely what you are wanting. Overriding the ToString() method would only be helpful for exceptions that you created, not already implemented ones. It doesn't make sense to sub class existing exceptions just to add this functionality.

For displaying some details to user you should use ex.Message. For displaying to developers you will probably need ex.Message and ex.StackTrace.

There is no 'secret' method, you could consider Message property to be best fit for user friendly message.

Also be careful that in some case you may have inner exception in exception you catch which would be also useful to log.

Each left-side name is property in the Exception. If you want to display Message field, you can do

return ex.Message;

Pretty simple. Likewise, the StackTrace can be displayed as below link.

A complete example of StackTrace: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.exception.stacktrace.aspx

and Exception class: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.exception.aspx

You will probably have to manually construct that string by concatenating the various fields you are interested in.

I think the exception serialization to JSON is nice option. Sample result:

{
"Errors": [{
		"Source": ".Net SqlClient Data Provider",
		"Number": -1,
		"Class": 20,
		"Server": "111.168.222.70",
		"Message": "A transport-level error has occurred when receiving results from the server. (provider: Session Provider, error: 19 - Physical connection is not usable)"
	}
],
"ClientConnectionId": "b1854037-51e4-4943-94b4-72b7bb4c6ab7",
"ClassName": "System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException",
"Message": "A transport-level error has occurred when receiving results from the server. (provider: Session Provider, error: 19 - Physical connection is not usable)",
"Data": {
	"HelpLink.ProdName": "Microsoft SQL Server",
	"HelpLink.EvtSrc": "MSSQLServer",
	"HelpLink.EvtID": "-1",
	"HelpLink.BaseHelpUrl": "http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink",
	"HelpLink.LinkId": "20476"
},
"InnerException": null,
"HelpURL": null,
"StackTraceString": "   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError ... DbExecutionStrategy.Execute[TResult](Func`1 operation)",
"RemoteStackTraceString": null,
"RemoteStackIndex": 0,
"ExceptionMethod": "8\nOnError\nSystem.Data, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089\nSystem.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection\nVoid OnError(System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException, Boolean, System.Action`1[System.Action])",
"HResult": -2146232060,
"Source": ".Net SqlClient Data Provider",
"WatsonBuckets": null
}

In visual studio that sort of information can be outputted by a debugger visualizer.

I assume that because it is possible to write your own debugger visualizer: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e2zc529c.aspx

That in theory, if your can reverse engineer the built-in debugger visualizer for exceptions (if your can work out where they are stored) then you could use the same functionality.

EDIT:

Here is a post about where the debugger visualizers are kept: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1284936/where-do-i-find-microsoft-visualstudio-debuggervisualizers

You might be able to use it for your own purposes.

If you call ToString on Exception object, you get the class name appended by the message, followed by inner exception and then the stack trace.

className + message + InnerException + stackTrace

Given that, InnerException and StackTrace are only added if they are not null. Also, the fields you have mentioned in the screenshot are not part of standard Exception class. Yes, exception does offer a public property called "Data", that contain additional user-defined information about the exception.